A New Beginning
by thevampirewolf4816
Summary: The cullens hav to leave Forks. What will happen when a family of innocent fugitives ask the cullens for help? Will they help the strangers & risk their lives? And who is out to get the Cullens this time? After Breaking Dawn! PLEASE R&R!:D
1. Bad News

_A New Beginning_By: thevampirewolf4816

Book #5 of The Twilight Series

A sequel to Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

Bad News

This was the part I hated… the reason that I ever had a doubt about whether my new life would be all I thought it would be. It's been nearly six months - the happiest six months of my existence - since the Volturi left us in peace. Six months was pushing it already.

Edward was trying to pass for nineteen, even though his perfect body didn't look a day over seventeen. The others were trying to pass for ridiculous ages too…all for me, so that I wouldn't have to lose Charlie. But now I knew that we had to leave. It was time.

Telling him would be the hardest part. He would try to hide his grief, but I knew how much it would hurt him. Because that's what I did…I hurt people…it's a talent. Ask everyone I know.

We're moving to Alaska to be with the Denalis. Edward and I _would_ be going to Dartmouth in New Hampshire, but I'm a mother now…and after coming so close to losing Renesmee once, I guess you could say she and I are joined at the hip. Though there was still the fact that Edward had already paid _both _of our tuitions, it didn't even make a _dent _in his - sorry,_our - _bank account.

Edward, Renesmee, and I were on our way to Charlie's to…tell him goodbye.

"Why me?!?" I wanted to scream out to nobody in particular. Why did I always have to hurt people? What was wrong with me? I wanted so badly to tell Charlie everything. I knew he was strong enough…but I couldn't. I had to protect him.

As we pulled into the driveway, I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Not only would saying goodbye hurt _him_, but I would miss him too. Charlie had been so strong these last few months, stronger than I ever could have expected him to be. He was strong because I had promised him that if he was, we would stick around. But I'm sure six months wasn't exactly his idea of 'Sticking Around'.

I knocked on the door. I heard him sigh and heave himself off the couch. There was a _clump, clump clump, clump, a_nd then he was at the door. I breathed in a deep fiery breath just before the door opened.

An eye-crinkling grin lit up his face.

"Well hi, Bells! I didn't know you were coming by tonight!"

"Hey, Dad," I tried to smile as warmly as I could, "Thought I'd surprise you."

"Hello, Charlie." said Edward as politely as ever.

"Edward," Charlie grunted back in acknowledgement. "And there's my girl!" he exclaimed as he reached for Renesmee. She answered him with a dazzling smile.

Charlie gestured for us to come in and sit on the couch.

"Dad," I began, "There's something we need tell you."

His grin automatically faded and his expression became wary.

"What?" he asked cautiously

"It's about our _need to know_ subject…" I warned him.

"And?"

"Well…" I didn't know how to begin, "You know how I said that we couldn't stay in Forks forever…well we-"

"You're leaving." He said flatly, cutting me off. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Well yes, but-"

"When?"

I looked at the floor guiltily, "Two days."

He grunted and mumbled something that would have been unintelligible to human ears… "Knew it was coming…"

"Do I get to know where?" he asked me.

"No. It's a secret. I'm really sorry dad, you have no idea how much I wish I could tell you everything… but I can't."

"I know Bella, believe it or not…I can see that you _do_ want to tell me, and if you say you cant, then…I trust you."

I didn't deserve his trust though. I suddenly had a flashback of all my fuzzy human memories since I came to Forks…my awkward car ride back from the airport…him getting me my beloved, rusty truck… him putting up with me during my zombie stage…when he tried to have 'the talk' with me…anyone else would have had me committed years ago. But he put up with me and all of my lies, and I was just going to leave him in the dust. I would be – hopefully – living and prospering twenty years from now, and he would be dying. I was a hideous person.

"I'm glad you see it that way, Dad.

"I love you Bella, and despite all this craziness… I'm glad you came to live with me here in Forks. Will I… er… ever see you again?"

"Well, we'll stop by before we leave…if you want us to. I just thought it might be easier if I didn't tell you an hour before we were leaving."

"No, I'm glad you told me now."

I forced a smile.

A huge weight was lifted off my chest, and I felt a _little _less guilty about what I was doing to him. Again, he had taken it better than I had any right to expect him to. Why couldn't anyone ever just yell and get mad at me for _once? _Everybody just _had_ to be so understanding and nice…_all the time_! It was going to make me _sick!_

"There's just one minor problem…" Charlie began, serious again.

_Finally,_ I thought, _someone is _actually_ going to get mad at me!_

"What?" I asked, ready for anything he could possibly dish out.

"Renee."

That, I wasn't ready for. I sucked in a deep breath of air that cut the insides of my throat like razor blades. I hadn't thought much about Renee. I was so _stupid_! What was I _thinking_? Was I just going to ignore her pleas for me to visit her and fall off the face of the earth? No. And I thought I had it made…Charlie took the news well, and I was happy beyond belief…but _apparently_, it wasn't possible for me to be happy for more than a day without _something _else going wrong!

"Oh." Was all I managed to choke out.

"Yeah…oh." Charlie said, noticing my reaction.

There was a long awkward pause…

"Well, what _are_ you going to do?" Charlie asked after what seemed like an eternity.

"I…I…I don't know."

"Well you better figure it out since you're leaving in _two days_."

"Eh-hmm," Edward cut in, to my frantic thoughts. "Charlie, we were going to ask you to make up a plausible story that you think Renee could wrap her head around, but if you don't want to-"

"No, I want to help you guys as much as I possibly can. I'll do it."

"Thank you, Charlie."

"Just trying to do what little I can."

I had a strange sense of déjà vu when he said "_Just trying to do what little I can."_ I remembered back to when _I _was a human mixed in to the super-natural world. When _I_ was a liability, and not an asset. I remembered slicing my arm open with a rock…because I felt like I needed to. I remembered going to save my 'mom' from James…because I felt like I needed to. And I didn't want Charlie to do anything for us because _he_ felt like he needed to.

"No. We don't want you to feel pressured into anything. You don't have to-"

"I want to Bells, because I see how much stress you're under, and I _want_ to help you.

"Thank you, Dad. Really, thank you for everything."

"You're welcome Bella."


	2. A Change of Diet

2. A Change of Diet

When we arrived home, you would have never been able to tell that a coven of vampires lived in the big white house. Everything looked so normal. Carlisle was bent over a fat book, Esme was in the kitchen polishing her silverware, and Emmett and Rosalie were sitting on the big white couch watching TV. Alice and Jasper were out hunting, and I could hear Jacob's even breathing and the steady _thud, thud thud, thud _of his paws farther out in the woods.

Renesmee was asleep in my arms. She had spent all day with Jacob in La Push. Since she was only half-vampire – not to mention the object of Jacob's imprinting – she was allowed in La Push. All of the quiluiete boys loved her and couldn't believe that six months ago, they were plotting to destroy her.

I took her upstairs and put her in the enormous gold bed in the middle of Edward's old room. She stirred in her sleep and curled into a ball. I still had a hard time comprehending that this beautiful, perfect, healthy child was mine forever. I was the luckiest person on the planet.

As I came down the stairs, I saw Edward going to sit down at the piano. He then started playing my lullaby. I glided over to stand behind him and put my hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to smile his dazzling smile at me, his fingers still flowing flawlessly over the keys. I was surprised at how his smile still dazzled me, after all this time. My lullaby drifted to the last chord and ended.

He turned to me and said, "We should go home."

That was another thing I would miss…my beloved cottage. Esme had built it especially for Edward and I and we would have to leave it behind. We were having a new exact replica built in Alaska, but it wouldn't be the same.

I went upstairs and gently removed Renesmee from the bed. I carried her down the stairs, careful not to jostle her sleeping body. As I walked out the door, the burning smell of dog floated into my sensitive nose. Ugh. Now I understood why Edward would never kiss me after I'd been hanging out with Jacob. I must have _really_ smelled.

I was flying through the forest, Edward and Renesmee in hand, when a delicious scent hit me. It was a taboo scent, so I automatically stopped breathing and closed my eyes. My abrupt stop had woken Renesmee and I could see that she smelled it too. It was _human._

"Jasper." Edward murmered, and shot into the black night. I didn't need more of an explanation than that. I wheeled back toward the house to tell Carlisle.

When I entered the white house, everyone was as they were before. My words came out in a rush.

"Jasper - he caught the scent of some hikers-" I didn't need to say anything more than that. The family was up and out the door in a second.

I ran outside and yelled "JACOB!" as loud as I could so that he would hear me wherever he was. He automatically ran through the trees in his wolf form, a confused look on his face.

"Take her," I told him, "I'll be right back." I left him and Renesmee standing there, both with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

Once again, I was flying through the night. I followed the other's scent, breathing in the taboo scent at the same time. It was hard to resist, but I had my priorities straight. Questions flew through my mind. How many hikers were there? Had Alice even attempted to stop Jasper? These questions were answered when I found the rest of the family all standing in a loose circle. Alice was there…but not Jasper.

"What happened?" I asked immediately.

"He couldn't resist." Edward told me in a blank voice.

"How Many?"

"Three."

"Three!" I gasped.

He just stared back.

"Well where is he now?" I asked.

"On a hunting trip." He said sourly

Reality hit me as I realized what he meant. Hunting _humans_.

"But…why?" I stuttered, "How could he?"

"Human blood is already hard enough to resist, but once you get started, it's hard to stop…especially for him. You have to remember, he wasn't brought up the way we were." He said in a hard tone.

I shot an exasperated look at Alice. Why had she not stopped him? How could she let him get this far? Apparently, my questions were plain on my face, because she then snapped at me, "Don't give me that look. I tried to stop him, but look at _him_…and then look at me." She used her hands to gesture toward her petite body. "You and Emmett are about the only ones that _could_ stop him!"

"I know. I'm sorry, Alice. I just…I'm just trying to- …_three_? I gasped again.

Alice shot me a glare, and then turned away from me.

Just then, Renesmee and Jacob – in his human form - came through the trees, and I sighed. Jacob gave Renesmee _anything_ she wanted…he was a big sucker. I shot him an accusing glance and he raised his hands and said defensively, "She was worried…and so was I.

What's going on?" He took a whiff of the air and noticed a scent that didn't belong. He gasped just as I did, and counted us. _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…_where was number eight?

"Arrrrgggg!!!" he exclaimed.

"What?" I asked, surprised at his fury.

"This is the exact type of thing that I'm supposed to prevent…and it's happening right in front of me!!!" he said through his teeth.

"Oh, give it a rest Jake."

"Hmph." He pouted, grabbing Renesmee's hand and attempting to take her back to the house. She tugged back and leaped into my arms. She pressed her small, hot hand against my neck, and instantly a picture of Jasper appeared. The picture was colored with questions. "He'll be back, don't worry. He went away for a little while." I assured her, not wanting to tell her the gruesome truth. I could see she didn't believe me, but she didn't press anymore. Edward, Renesmee, and I walked back to the cottage in silence.

I tucked Renesmee in and told her goodnight and not to worry about Uncle Jasper. Her mind should be as carefree as possible. Edward and I thoroughly enjoyed our last night in Forks, despite everything else that was going on.


	3. Goodbyes

3. Goodbyes

Today was the day. The day I was going to leave Forks. The day I was going to say goodbye to my father forever.

We would all – Renesmee, Edward, Alice, and I – go as soon as Charlie was up. We had decided to leave the scarier Cullens at home. Jacob was going to tag along too.

Believe it or not, Jacob is going to move all the way out to Alaska to live with the 'bloodsuckers', just for Renesmee. I had to let him come because; well…he was a good babysitter. Plus, he did anything I asked him to – just like a dog.

Edward and I strode quietly into Renesmee's room. It was baby pink, with sky blue trim at the top and bottom. It wasn't really Renesmee's style but, like me, she knew when to just let Alice do her thing without complaining. I tiptoed over to her bed and whispered quietly, "Renesmee, time to get up and say goodbye to Charlie." She stirred, and then yawned sleepily. "She'll be up." I said as I turned back to Edward. He nodded silently in agreement.

We went to sit in the front room to wait for her. As we sat there, there was almost an awkward silence. "Is there something wrong?" I asked him, breaking it.

"No." he said absentmindedly.

"Mmm-hmm."

"What?"

"Tell me!" I pleaded.

"Fine…it's you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. I just don't think you realize the enormity of what you're about to do. You're leaving Charlie behind forever…and you're doing it just so you can run off and be a vampire for all eternity…with me. I just wish that there were, somehow, a way for you and I to be happy at the same time!" he said with a frustrated look on his face.

"But I _am_ hap-"

"Don't tell me that you're happy! I know that this isn't what you want to do! You _don't_ want to leave Charlie behind do you?"

"No…" I said in a small voice.

"And you'll miss some of your friends here, won't you?"

"Yes, but Edward, that's not my point! I would give up _any_ of those things…as long as I could be with you and Renesmee! Nothing else matters as long as I'm with the two of you! Can't you see that?"

"I do see that Bella, and that's why I'm worried! Renesmee and I _shouldn't _be the only ones you care about! I can't be your whole life and neither can she!"

"You're _not_ my whole life. I love Alice, Jacob, Esme, Carlisle, Charlie, Renee, all of them! This is what I want! Believe me! I want to be with the two of you forever!"

"Okay, fine. As long as you're _sure_ that this is what _you_ want, then I won't argue anymore." He said, making peace at last.

"Good, all I want is you, and that I'm sure of." As I said this I twined my fingers with his and kissed him. Kissing him was ten times better than it had been as a human. There were no boundaries…none.

Renesmee walked sleepily around the corner.

"Good morning!" she said and leaped in to Edward's arms.

"Good morning!" we answered in unison, then laughed.

We all piled into Edward's Volvo – Alice, Jacob, Renesmee, Edward, and I – and drove to Charlie's.

When we pulled into the driveway, the curtains in the window jerked closed and the front door opened. Charlie had a perfect poker face on. He waved at us as all we stepped out of the car gracefully.

"Hey, dad!" I called to him as I walked up the steps.

"Hi, Bells!"

"We all came to say goodbye." I attempted to make small talk.

"Yeah, I see…"

"Hello Charlie." Edward said.

"Hello Edward." Charlie replied, trying to be as polite as he could.

"Hi, Grandpa!" Renesmee exclaimed and jumped into his arms.

"Hey, Nessie!" he replied, groaning at her weight. She was almost the size of a five year old now!

"Hey, Charlie." Alice said nonchalantly.

"Well, hi Alice!" he exclaimed. "Haven't seen you in a while!"

"Sup, Charlie." Jacob said and grinned.

"Uhh…hi, Jake." Charlie said in response to his slang greeting. Jake and Charlie's relationship was still a bit awkward ever since Jacob had phased in front of him. "Well, jeez…you brought _everyone_! Come in, come in!" he said, waving us inside. "Have you guys seen the paper this morning? I have absolutely no idea what on earth is going on around here!"

_I do, _I thought wryly to myself and reached for the paper. The headline read, '_Murder Strikes Forks!!!'_. I scanned the paper, reluctantly looking for a name. And there it was, "…_Karen Newton, owner of 'Newton's Olympic Outfitters", was found dead in her store this morning. Her son, Mike Newton, got worried when she didn't come home and went to go check on her. He then found her body lying motionless behind the checkout counter. An investigation will take place…"_ I couldn't read anymore.

_Poor Mike, _I thought to myself. I stretched my elastic shield away from myself, revealing my thoughts to Edward. It always took him by surprise when I did this, even though I did it a lot now. He sighed.

"Isn't that awful?" Charlie exclaimed. "She had two little girls too…"

Jasper had already gone to live with the Denalis. He needed some time to "cool down" as Alice put it. It was making her anxious to be away from him, but she knew it would hurt Charlie's feelings if she didn't come to say goodbye.

"So I guess this is it?" Charlie asked warily, breaking into my thoughts. "Is this the last time that I'll see you?"

"Yes," I said in a small voice, "this is it."

"Whew," he said, exhaling, his delicious scent hitting me. "I guess I knew that."

"Yeah…whew."

"Well," Jacob cut in, "I've got some goodbyes to give too, soo, we need to be going now."

I shot him a glare. He was ruining my moment. "We'll be waiting out in the car," Edward said stiffly as they filed out the door.

"Look Bella," Charlie began, his voice wavering, "I know I haven't exactly been the _'World's Best Dad', _but I want you to know that…I love you."

"I love you too, dad. And you _have_ been the world's best dad…to me."

"Thanks Bells, that means a lot to me. And I'll tell your mother that you love her to."

"Thank you, dad. Really, thank you." And with that, I hugged him and walked out the door. I looked back at my house one last time, and then got in the passenger seat of the Volvo. _Goodbye,_ I told the house. There I went speaking to inanimate objects again. _Goodbye._


	4. Road Trip

4. Road Trip

Since the Cullens owned so many cars, we were all split up when we drove to Alaska. Alice was in her Porsche, Rosalie in her BMW, Emmett in his jeep, Edward took the Volvo, Carlisle and Esme rode in their black car, Jacob rode _his_ bike, and Renesmee and I took my Ferrari…ugh.

I hated long car rides…I would much rather be flying. It took us about three hours to get to Juneau, and the entire car ride, I couldn't stop thinking about Mike. For some reason, I almost felt _guilty_ for Mike's mom's death. I felt like I could have _prevented_ it from happening somehow…like, I could have locked everyone I knew up and not let them come out until I was _sure_ that Jasper wasn't hunting.

I knew _exactly_ what probably happened to her, yet, there would probably be an investigation for the next two weeks…I could see the headlines now…_"No New Leads on Newton Murder Investigation…_." That's how you could tell it was a vampire. There were always no leads, and no evidence.

We had been driving for about an hour and a half when Carlisle – who was at the front of our procession of fancy cars – sent out a text message saying that we would stop for gas at the nearest gas station.

As we pulled into the gas station, everybody's heads turned to look at us. It was something you had to get used to, the staring. I wasn't used to being looked at like the most beautiful thing in the world. Pretty much my only experience with that had been with J. Jenks last summer.

I wasn't looking forward to going to the high school in Juneau either. Everyone would be staring at the mysterious and beautiful Cullen family, sitting in the corner of the lunchroom and eating nothing. This time though, I would be sitting with them, looking as if I _actually _belonged there. I wouldn't be known as the awkward, klutzy, Bella Swan whose father was the police chief…I would be known as the beautiful, graceful, Bella Cullen, adopted daughter of Dr. Carlisle Cullen. _That,_ I was looking forward to.

Edward's face appeared in the window of my car, interrupting my fantasies. He motioned for me to roll down the window. When I did, he said "Your turn." And gestured toward the pump. Since there were seven cars, there were not enough pumps for all of us to fill up at the same time.

"Oh, sorry." I said grinning sheepishly.

"That's ok." he said, "What were you thinking of?"

"You'll never know!" I teased him as I swiped my credit card.

"Hmph." He pretended to pout for a second then leaned closer to me and whined, "Please?" Then he gave me that crooked smile that he knew I couldn't resist, but I wasn't going to give in. I liked this game.

"_Well_…I was thinking of a lot of things…" I said evasively.

"Like what?" he inquired, his cool breath hitting me as he got closer.

"I'm not sure I can _remember _all of them…" It was getting harder and harder to resist.

"Here, let me help you then…" he said as he leaned down to kiss me. I almost forgot that we were at a public gas station, when I heard Jacob make a noise in the back of his throat. I pulled myself away from Edward and chunked my wallet at his head as hard as I could. "Go buy yourself something to eat, dog." I muttered.

"Thanks!" Jacob said with mock enthusiasm as he walked off to the convenient store, muttering unintelligibly. I didn't resume kissing Edward because a busload of people had just stopped at the gas station. As always, I wasn't _embarrassed _of kissing him, but I had never been _'that girl'_ that went around kissing her boyfriend at gas stations.

Finally, all of us had full tanks, and our procession left – people staring just as much as they had when we came. There would only be another hour and a half to go until we got to Juneau. _Only an hour and a half,_ I told myself.

I was _dying _for some company, so Esme drove the Porsche and Alice rode with me. Alice was still anxious about Jasper. She needed to be there to comfort and console him. I decided not to bring up the subject of Mike's mom for that reason alone, even though I wanted to talk about it with someone, but I knew that if I talked about it with Edward, he would say, _"You see Bella, this is what vampires do. We're monsters. This is what you wanted to become." _Or something of that sort, so I decided not to even go there.

Alice had been quiet the entire car ride when, all the sudden, she wailed, "_Oh_, Bella! I just don't know what to _do_! One of these days, Jasper is going to get tired of restraining himself and he'll leave!!! I want to be with you guys, but I wont be able to let him go!!!" she let out one tearless sob.

Surprised by her totally random outburst of emotion, I tried to think of a way to console her. "It's ok, Alice! I understand if you have to leave!" I lied, "Did you see that he _would_ leave?" I asked worriedly. I really didn't want _her_ to leave.

"No…" she sniffed, "But I just _feel_ it!" she wailed it again. If I didn't know better, I would say it was her time of the month, but I _did_ know better…and that led me to wonder what on earth had led to this sudden outbreak. Again, I tried to console her. "It's okay." I said, putting my arm around her tiny shoulders, keeping one hand on the wheel. "If you don't _know_ that he is going to leave, then don't get so worked up about it!" She sniffed and then nodded. The rest of the car ride was silent.

We were now in Juneau. The drive to the Denali's house was about thirty minutes, since they lived far out in the woods so that they could hunt easily. We drove past the high school that we would be going to, Juneau High. It was _huge_, almost as big as my old school in Phoenix.

When we finally arrived, Tanya, Kate, Eleazar, and Carmen came out of their house to meet us. I was surprised to see another face among them, Garrett, the nomad that had been one of our witnesses last year. His eyes were no longer deep crimson…now they were golden.

"Hello, cousins!" Carlisle greeted them warmly.

"Good to see you Carlisle!" Tanya said as she embraced him. We all stepped out of our cars. I put my parka on, out of habit. It was the same parka that I had when I first arrived in Forks, and here I am, arriving in Juneau with it. There's that déjà vu again.

"Come in, come in!" Tanya said, gesturing toward the house. I was glad to be out of the car. I walked around to the back seat to get Renesmee. She had been snoring delicately in the back since we left the gas station. Finally, our road trip was over.


	5. Unfamiliar

5. Unfamiliar

The inside of the Denali's house was the complete opposite of our old house. Inside, there were no white walls, no glass so that you could see into the surrounding woods. The color pallet was made up of earthy colors, such as maroons, hunter greens, browns, and rusty oranges. This was going to take some getting used to.

When I first saw Kate, she grinned at me in a somewhat malicious way. Maybe it just seemed like that to me because I would never in my existence forget the way she hurt Edward using her powerful gift. Nor would I forget how she made fully matured vampires fall on their backs in pain, but apparently had Edward forgotten all of this because he fully embraced her and greeted her warmly.

When she came to welcome _me_, I was somewhat more reluctant. Noticing this, Kate made a flash of electricity run over her body, and then winked at me. Even though I knew she wouldn't hurt her, I instinctively held Renesmee closer. I would definitely have to get used to having Kate around too. Yeah, I had lots of adapting to do. Garrett then put his arm around her waist and kissed her, pulling her away to another room.

"Ahh, Bella!" Eleazar exclaimed, and rewarded me with _another _hug. Apparently they were into the hugging thing.

"Hello Eleazar!" I said politely. I felt somewhat out of my comfort zone here…like a fish out of water. Besides my move to Forks, this had been the only time I'd ever moved, and it made it even _more _awkward because everyone knew each other so well. It was obvious that I _was _the only one who felt this way. Everyone else was scattered around the big living room, sitting at tables and couches, conversing and catching up.

I sat down in one of the recliners, holding Renesmee to my chest and burying my face in her bronze ringlets. For right now, she was my little piece of home. Secretly, I hoped that she would feel the same way when she woke up. But, I _didn't_ want her to feel out of her comfort zone at the same time. Like me, she had only met the Denalis last summer - not counting my wedding. She stirred in her sleep, then stretched her arms out and yawned.

"Mommy?" she looked sleepily around the room.

"I'm right here." I answered her.

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes, we're here. Do you want to say hello to everyone?"

"Yes!!!" she squealed in delight. Apparently her feelings weren't the same as mine.

"Alright." I sighed, lifting out of the recliner.

"I want to say hello to Carmen and Eleazar!"

"Okay, okay." I said putting her down. She automatically ran over to them. They both were engaged in a conversation with Esme, They were sitting at the unused kitchen table. I was about to follow her when someone suddenly grabbed me around my waist and pulled me into an empty room.

"Ooh!" I gasped in surprise while he threw me down on the bed playfully.

"What?" he inquired as innocently as if he had simply _asked _me to join him in another room.

"You!" I exclaimed, pulling him onto the bed with me.

"Okay…_now_ I can ask you…what's wrong?" he asked, bringing the full power of his eyes down upon me.

"Nothing!" I lied.

"Hmm." He said thoughtfully. "I have ways of finding out, you know." He then twined his fingers into my brown hair and kissed my neck, my jaw, and then finally my lips. He fought dirty.

"Feel like sharing yet?" Again, he gave me that crooked grin of his.

"Fine!" I said, throwing in the towel with a glare. _It would have been more fun to let it continue though_…I thought wistfully. "I just don't feel…comfortable here…_yet,_ anyway. I'm sure it'll pass though. In a few days, I'll probably be as comfortable as you are." I said, pushing the notion aside.

"I'm not comfortable unless _you're_ comfortable." He said in a hard tone. "How about we go check out our little piece of home, then?" he grabbed my hand, pulled me off the bed, and opened the door. We walked through the front room as if no one else was in there. If I could have blushed, I would have. _He _may not have noticed it, but the way he almost _dragged_ me out the door attracted glances from almost everyone in the room.

It was chilly outside, and a blanket of darkness was just beginning to cover the sky. The gravel from the Denali's drive way crunched under my feet.

"Are you taking me to our cottage?" I asked excitedly. I had been looking forward to this since we arrived here. It was supposed to be an exact replica of our one in Forks.

"Yes." He said, beginning to run now.

We arrived there within two minutes. It _was_ exactly like our one in Forks! Renesmee was my little piece of home, and _this_ was what I had been counting on to be my big piece of home.

I ran through the trees and into my cottage. The inside was identical too. This was the best part of my day. I ran through the narrow hall leading to our room. I threw myself down on the familiar bed and sighed contently. I could hear Edward chuckling outside. In a split second, he was lying on the bed with me.

Again, I sighed contently. I was finally home.


	6. First Day

6. First Day

**Author's Note: **I know that the chapters are short, but there will be lots of them to compensate for that. I do my stories on Microsoft Word so it _looks_ long when I'm writing it, but then when it gets on FanFic, it is _really_ short. I will try harder from now on to make my chapters longer!!! ~

As I had guessed, I was well adapted here in Juneau after just a few days. I was happy to see that Kate _wasn't _as sadistic with her powers as I had originally thought… once you got to know her, anyway. I also knew my way around the Denali's house now as if I had lived there for years, thanks to my photographic memory.

Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie were living with the Denalis in their huge house too. Jacob was – against my will – living in our cottage with Edward and I. He usually gave us our privacy though, so I didn't mind _that _much. I just had to understand that it physically hurt him to be away from Renesmee, and the less pain I caused Jacob, the better. I also had to keep in mind that he had to leave _his_ family behind in Forks too. He was going through the same thing I was.

As Edward, and I lay in bed one morning, something I hadn't thought about for days slipped into my mind…Mike Newton. _How was he doing? What was in the Forks newspapers about the investigation?_

My mind was still occupied with these questions when, suddenly, I remembered what day it was. August 13! Today was my dreaded first day of school. Ugh.

"Do I _have_ to go to school?" I groaned.

"Of course!" Edward scoffed as if he had never skipped school before

"But I don't want to!" I whined, burying my head in his smooth, marble chest.

"Well…" he pretended to think for a while, "I suppose we _could _skip_… _but we want to make a good first impression, don't we?" he teased

"No!" I pouted.

He laughed and sat up.

"Come on! It won't be _that_ bad…I promise!" he said as he pulled me out of bed. I reluctantly went to my huge closet to find something to wear on my "first day of school". One thing is for sure…there was absolutely _nothing _in my closet that would make me look like a normal person and not an angel – thanks to Alice.

We decided to take the Volvo and the Jeep, since they were the only two somewhat inconspicuous cars that we owned. Edward, Alice, Jacob, Jasper and I rode in the Volvo, while Emmett and Rosalie took in the Jeep.

Renesmee is going to be "home schooled" until she reaches her full maturity (in height). Although her growth has slowed, it's still too easy to see the difference to let her interact with humans. Once she stops growing, she'll come to high school with the rest of us. I never in my life pictured my daughter going to high school _with_ me!

Esme is going to teach her some middle school math and a few different languages. That way, when she is dropped into high school, she will be as smart/smarter than everyone there. She already knows how to read and write flawlessly, so math and a few foreign languages are all she really _needs _to know.

The town of Juneau was like Phoenix except cold. On our way to school, we passed by tons of shops. There were restaurants, boutiques, businesses…things that you would almost _never_ see in Forks.

As we pulled into the school parking lot, it made me feel a _little_ bit better to see that we weren't the only ones that had fancy cars. There were cars like a Mercedes, a brand new Volkswagen, and a Cadillac. _Whew,_ I thought, _that's one more category we wont stand out in. _

We found a spot near the back of the parking lot. People were scattered all around us. There were Freshman that were hopping out of the car as quickly as possible so as to avoid being seen still being dropped off by their parents ( unless like Edward, Alice, Jacob and I they were lucky enough to have siblings that could drop them off ), the sophomores and juniors were catching up with each other from summer break, and the seniors were busy looking cool and intimidating to the Freshman…ah, high school.

I stepped out of the car in unison with the others.

I saw Edward flinch – probably from all of the loud, happy thoughts that greeted him in this huge school.

I saw Alice sigh as if to say "Here we go again…"

Jasper inhaled deeply and took in the emotional climate.

Jacob just stood there with a bored expression on his face, looking freakishly huge and tan compared to the rest of us.

I stood there taking it all in.

Everyone's head turned to look at us when the hum of Emmett's jeep broke through all of the chatter. Rosalie and Emmett hopped out of the car, Rosalie flipping her hair back in a perfect imitation of a model. Emmett walked around and put his arm around her waist. The couple strutted through the parking lot as if nobody were there, then they disappeared through the doors of the building. _They_ obviously didn't care what people thought.

I took a deep, fiery breath and followed suit, with Edward at my side, holding my hand. This was going to be a long day…

Edward and I walked through the double doors at the entrance of the school. His face was expressionless as we both searched for our lockers. Everyone was staring. If I could have sweat, I would have been drenched.

Of course Edward had made sure that we had almost every class together _and_ that we had lockers by each other. I didn't _even_ have to ask how he had made those arrangements. The only two classes that we _didn't _have together were biology and French – since he was taking Spanish.

I was unpacking my things into my locker when he said reluctantly, "You know, if you're too nervous, then we could always skip I guess."

"No," I assured him, " I'll be fine. I've just got the first day jitters."

"Alright." He grinned. "So, first on our schedule is…history, then we have…English, then next is…PE, and then we have lunch." He said eyeing the schedule as if he hadn't already memorized it.

"Good way to start off the day." I said, nodding my head.

"Off we go then!" he exclaimed, taking my hand and leading me off to history…..

Edward and I entered the lunchroom together after third period. Again, everyone who hadn't already seen us turned to stare. I could see nudges and nods, and hear people talking about us in low undertones, thinking that we couldn't see or hear them.

I entered the lunch line first and grabbed a tray. Today they were having spaghetti, rolls, and green beans. _Yum,_ I thought to myself wryly. As we slowly moved through the line, I grabbed a _little_ bit of everything. I handed the lunch lady a five dollar bill, and when I reached to get my change, she shrank away from my cold skin. That was another thing I had forgotten – no making physical contact with humans if you could help it. It freaked them out…I knew from experience.

When I was finally out of the line, I scanned the lunchroom, looking for Alice. As I had expected, I found her sitting in the back of the cafeteria. I thought Jacob would have been sitting with her, but she was by herself. As I went to go and sit with her, I asked, "Where's Jacob?"

She answered my question with a nod and a smirk towards the middle of the cafeteria. Sure enough, Jacob was sitting at another table, with three boys and two girls surrounding him. Apparently, he didn't have a hard time making friends.

"So how has your day been so far?" I asked Alice.

"Great!" She answered animatedly, "I like this school _way_ better than our old school. You should have been there on our first day in _Forks_…it was terrible!"

"Hmm." I answered distractedly. I wasn't looking forward to the rest of the day. The next two periods were my two without Edward. Then I just had Math _with_ Edward and then we could finally go home.

"Have _you_ enjoyed your day so far?" Edward asked me.

"Yes." I replied, "But only because I've been with you. I'm not too sure how I'll fair _without _you, but I'm sure I'll live."

"Yes, I'm sure you'll live without me." He teased.

"Well…I wouldn't be _too_ sure about that. I could die of loneliness."

"Sure you will…"

My PE experience had been much better this year. It seemed that you were good at everything once you were a vampire. I was the most graceful one in my gym class. I loved my new life and it seemed that it suited me perfectly.

We were playing volleyball in gym and all the boys ( who were playing basketball on the other half of the court ) couldn't stop staring at me. I almost laughed out loud at the look Edward gave them as he read their thoughts. When gym ended, he exclaimed, "How dare they think about my wife like that!"

"Hey," I then reminded him, "you were the one who listened to their thoughts."

Then, the bell rang, interrupting my flashback. I stood up, went to throw my plate away, and pecked Edward on the cheek as I say goodbye to him. "See you in Math." I sighed, reluctantly leaving him.

For biology, I had Mr. Keenly. He was rumored to be one of the nicest teachers in the school, but I would have to see for myself.

When I entered the classroom, I could tell that he was trying his hardest not to stare at me. It was nice of him to make the effort, even though he wasn't particularly succeeding. Naturally, I took the seat in the very back of the classroom. I pulled my notebook out of my book bag and got out a pen, dreading the next fifty minutes.

There were vacant seats in front of me and, noticing this, Mr. Keenly exclaimed, "Ah! Why don't you come up here and sit with the rest of the class Miss umm…"

"Cullen." I corrected him, "Bella Cullen."

I then gathered my things and moved to the vacant desk in the middle of the class. This was one of those times that I was glad I couldn't blush. The seat beside me was empty.

The rest of the class passed without incident, as did the rest of the day. When I arrived home, I flopped down on the couch and sighed._ This is going to be what it's like the rest of your life Bella, _I told myself. I was glad when Renesmee had fallen asleep and Edward and I could have _our _fun at last. Whatever ill feelings I had that night had been completely erased when we "went to sleep" that night.


	7. Weekend

7. Weekend

Today was Friday. My first week of school was coming to an end…finally. As Edward, Alice, Jasper, Jacob and I drove to school in the Volvo, I was already dreading the day ahead of me. Ugh.

Jasper parked the car in our usual spot and we all got out. Since I was a "freshman" I couldn't drive by myself yet. That was going to get _seriously _annoying. I would have to wait an _entire_ year before I could drive even though I had already taken Drivers Ed once before. _That's a small price to pay though, _I reminded myself.

Once again, Edward and I walked through the double doors leading into the school. There were already colorful flyers taped to the bulletin board announcing things like the first football game, when tryouts for the ladies basketball team would be held, and the first dance ( that Edward had _promised _not to take me to ). I arrived at my locker and put in the combination. I shoved my first and second period things into my book bag and headed off to homeroom with Edward.

As Mrs. Rivera was calling role in homeroom, she had someone pass out the same flyers that had been up on the bulletin board in the hallway. When they reached Edward and I, I carelessly took them and shoved them in my book bag. Edward almost laughed out loud. He knew how not into sports or dances or pretty much any school events I was, so I was surprised that he found it funny. First bell then rang and we headed off to History with Mr. Hartlin.

Mr. Hartlin did not exactly make history enjoyable. He was one of those people that thought that all teenagers were rockers/teenyboppers that didn't care or know about anything educational or good. Whenever Edward would surprise him with his knowledge of history, the two of them would almost get into an argument/debate about their facts and opinions. Edward always stayed calm and composed, while Mr. Hartlin looked like he was about to bust a blood vessel in his head. One could barely watch the two of them without laughing their head off inside.

We entered the classroom and took our seats at the back of the room. A grin stole over Edward's face.

"What?" I asked after Mr. Hartlin began his lesson for the day.

"He's decided he's not going to embarrass himself today by calling on me." He replied, still grinning subtly.

A suppressed giggle slipped through my lips as I pictured them arguing again. Mr. Hartlin and everyone else turned their head to look at Edward and I.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class Miss Cullen?" he asked pointedly. Edward slipped me a piece of paper under the desk. "Perhaps you'd like to recite what I've been talking about the entire time you and Mr. Cullen have been chatting and giggling?" I scanned the piece of paper. On it were notes that Edward had taken on Mr. Hartlin's lecture. I tried not to smile.

"Sure, Mr. Hartlin." I replied in a confident voice. He turned red at the sound of it. He then nodded at me, trying to keep his cool.

"Well, the chapter we're in is about politics. Today we started section three which is titled 'Running for Political Office'. We started talking about the two major political parties, which are they the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And while you were _trying _to inform us on the general platforms and beliefs of both parties without bias, it was clear to everyone that you were showing favoritism to the Democratic Party. And I _believe_ you were about to start on the subject of…"

"That's quite enough Miss Cullen. I am now assured that you were indeed paying attention. But, I would appreciate it if you and _Mr._ Cullen would refrain from talking and laughing in my class again, understood?" he was red as a beat now, and you could tell that he was summoning up all of his courage to scold us.

"Yes, Mr. Hartlin." Edward and I said in unison and tried to look guilty.

As soon as the bell rang and we were in the hallway, we burst out laughing. I turned around just in time to see Mr. Hartlin standing in the doorway, passing his hand over his face and his balding head.

"You were good in there!" Edward exclaimed in surprise.

"What do you mean?!" I asked, taking offense.

"Well, you normally aren't that confident under pressure, but today you were flawless!"

"Of course I was! I'm a vampire now, remember? I'm just _naturally _flawless!" I replied, smiling hugely as I thought of the word _flawless_ and how it applied to me.

"Being a vampire doesn't make you perfect Bella." he said in a hard tone, grimacing.

"That's an opinion." I retorted as we entered Ms. Winter's classroom for English. Totally unlike Mr. Hartlin, Ms. Winter was one of those teachers that were just genuinely nice. She was young and unmarried, so she could pretty much see eye-to-eye with you. Even though she knew Edward and I sat in the back of the room and pretty much conversed through the entire class period, she never said anything. But, occasionally she would call on Edward or I and ask our opinion on a book, not because she was trying to catch us off guard, but because she was actually interested. Usually we would try to dumb down our opinions so as not to embarrass the teacher, but with her, she took our answers and respected them.

"Okay," Edward began in a hushed voice; "I didn't want you to throw a fit over this in Mr. Hartlin's class, but…Alice is taking you shopping tonight."

"What?!" I exclaimed as quietly as I could. "Why?! Don't I have enough clothes already?!" I gestured to the red cashmere sweater and the seventy-five dollar jeans I was wearing that we had bought on our last shopping trip – only two weeks ago!

"No. That's one 'Cullen family rule' – you can never have _enough_ clothes. According to Alice anyway…" he said with a crooked smile.

"Hmph." I pouted. I wish he had waited to tell me this. Now my whole day would be ruined.

"Please, put on a good face tonight!" he pleaded sternly. "You don't accomplish anything by having a bad attitude, Bella! It'll make Alice happy, that's what counts."

_For Alice,_ I told myself as I forced out a smile/grimace. He chuckled softly at my halfhearted attempt as he played with a strand of my hair. I remembered back to the day when I first met Edward and I self-consciously sniffed myself all over, trying to figure out why he could possibly look so repulsed by me. I remembered me sniffing my hair, smelling my old strawberry scented shampoo, and trying to remember if I had forgotten to use deodorant that morning. Never in a million years would I have guessed the real reason behind his hostility. Yet here we sit, our relationship effortless. Then the bell rang, signaling that it was time for us to go to PE.

Edward and I disentangled our hands as we were both forced into two different locker rooms. I strode past three rows of lockers until I got to mine, which was on the second to last row. I opened my locker and pulled out the blue sweats and white t-shirt that had the school emblem on them. I remembered longingly back to when this used to be my daily attire, but once Alice got a hold of my wardrobe, I never saw my sweats and t-shirts again. As a matter of fact, the only things that I still had from my _old_ wardrobe were the graduation outfit that Alice had given me when Victoria had taken most of my clothes, and the blue shirt that Edward loved on me and had convinced Alice to let me keep. As I was thinking, I had unconsciously undressed and dressed myself. I snapped out of reminiscence and stepped out of my row of lockers and into the sea of blue and white that was streaming toward the two exits. I tried to avoid making contact with anyone; the last thing I wanted was to be in an awkward situation without Edward.

When I finally reached the double doors, I was one of the first girls to enter the gym. Most of the girls went through the _other_ exit leading outside to play softball. Edward was on the other side of the court, sprawled across the gym floor just like the other guys, but so unlike the other guys. He flashed me a crooked grin and I attempted to mimic it. I could tell it didn't turn out the way I wanted just by the way it felt on my lips. Mrs. Waters then blew her whistle and shouted, "Alright ladies! Get stretching!" I had been completely unaware that the rest of my class was in the gym now. I self-consciously spread my legs apart and bent down to touch my right toes. I could feel the cool air on my back as I bent down the middle to touch the floor. Alice had ordered my PE uniform for me and with Alice; it's the smaller the better. I heard Edward suppress a growl and I looked through my legs to see what was I going on. One of the boys was staring at me, and I wasn't going to give him time to fantasize any longer. I shot up straight and bent my arms behind my head. The cool air moved from my back to my stomach. I jerked my shirt back down and, with an exasperated sigh, sat down on the floor like Edward. I was going to kill Alice.

Mrs. Waters blew her whistle again and yelled, "Positions!" Everyone scrambled into their designated spots. My position was in the middle. Basically all I had to was bump and/or set the ball. Occasionally I had to serve, but that wasn't hard for me. Nothing was. "Get ready team two!" Mrs. Waters shouted as the other teams server threw the ball in the air. I instinctively bent my legs – something I never would have known to do as a human – as the server smacked her hand against the ball, sending it flying over the net. The ball was heading straight for one particular girl in the back. I knew who this girl was. She was me. I could just tell by the way that she awkwardly stretched her hands out in front of her what kind of girl she was. As the ball descended toward her, she flung her hands over her head and flinched when the ball slammed into her hunched over back. Everyone in the gym laughed…except for Edward and me.

The girl arose wearily, avoiding everyone's eyes. She was blushing profusely. I felt the need to go and comfort her, but what was I supposed to say? _"It's okay! I used to be like you until I was changed into a vampire! Things will get easier someday!"_ I'm sure that would make her feel _loads_ better! But the truth was, it probably wouldn't have gotten easier for me. I might still be the klutz I used to be if I had never moved to Forks. "Alright, alright! Lets get back to work!" Mrs. Waters commanded both classes. "Team two, you're up!" She tossed the ball to the girl whose last name was Andrews and looked pointedly at the back line of the court.

And the rest of the class period passed like this slowly…………….

Edward and I entered the cafeteria together. We were always some of the last ones in the cafeteria since we had to change back after PE and shove our way through the crowds in the locker rooms. I entered the lunch line and grabbed a plastic tray from the stack. I passed through the threshold into the hot serving area. The lunch ladies were busy preparing more food for the next three lunch waves. As usual, I grabbed a tiny portion of everything. Occasionally, Jacob would sit with us and he would _always_ mooch off of our plates. Not that I minded, but it was kind of gross to see him sitting there stuffing his face.

I headed to our table in the back of the cafeteria. As Alice smiled at me, I answered her with a glare. I was still mad at her for several things.

"What did I do?" she asked innocently.

"Well let's see…" I was about to mention the shopping trip, but a nudge in the ribs from Edward reminded me about our agreement. I had to be nice. I moved on to my next complaint – my PE clothes.

"The PE clothes you got me are _way_ too small! I could barely stretch without _flashing_ everybody! Particularly the boys…" I said as Edward grimaced.

"Oh, Bella, you're overreacting!" she said brushing the thought aside.

I growled and commanded, "I mean it Alice."

"Okay, okay! _Fine_! We'll get them after our shopping trip!" she said excitedly, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands together. At that, I groaned.

The lunch bell rang and I dragged myself off to class, ready to endure the rest of the day………………………………………………………

I was sitting in seventh period math with Edward. This class always seemed to pass painfully slow. I couldn't pick out whether it was because it was _math_, or because it was just so close to the end of the day. I sat there with my head in my hands, staring at the clock. We had three minutes left in this class, and I was counting the seconds.

Edward picked up my hand and kissed it up and down. I yanked it away and looked pointedly around the classroom.

"So…" he murmured and began kissing it again.

I folded my arms across my chest and whispered, "Later…"

"Fine then, later." He agreed. Then the bell rang and it was as if an electric shock was sent through the classroom. Everyone jumped up and sprinted for the door, Edward and I included.

We stepped out into the cool air in the parking lot. We headed toward the Volvo and the Jeep. I was surprised when Edward let go of my hand and kissed me. He headed toward the jeep with Emmett and Jasper. I narrowed my eyes. We were going shopping straight from school.

"What about Renesmee?" I argued. "She's coming too right?"

"Yep!" Alice replied, opening the door for me. Renesmee's warm scent wafted from the car. Esme sat beside her.

"How did you get here?" I asked her.

"Aunt Esme ran over here with me!" she informed me, smiling.

Alice slid into the back seat with Renesmee. As soon as she shut the door, Rosalie sped out of the parking lot.

"What are the boys doing?" I asked.

"Hunting, of course." Alice said obviously

Juneau was a little tourist trap. There were thousands of fancy French boutiques, outlet malls, restaurants that no one has ever heard of – pretty much Alice's heaven, and my hell. I sat in the passenger seat with my arms folded tightly over my chest, scowling out the icy window shield. Again I wondered how something so tiny could be so annoying. She let out an exasperated sigh and exclaimed, "Bella, you can do this the hard way or the easy way! You're a _girl_ for heaven's sake! You're supposed to _love_ to shop! What is _wrong_ with you?!"

"Whatever…" I muttered.

"Hmph." She pouted.

I directed my glance out the window now. We were passing by a house with a mover's truck parked in the driveway. There were men moving sofas and dressers into the big house. There was a girl standing there looking unhappy. She seemed to be about my size. I could hear her shivering so obviously she was from somewhere a bit warmer. I didn't give her a second thought after we pulled into the huge mall in Juneau. I shot one more glare at Alice and hopped out of the car. I stopped for a moment, taking in all of the smells. Edward had always warned me; be on your guard when you're in public. You don't want to be unprepared if you find your _la tua cantante. _I probed the air with my sensitive nose. No scents particularly appealed to me out here. I could tell the others were doing the same thing as me.

Once again, Alice began to jump up and down excitedly. We all started toward the mall entrance. There were people streaming from every which way. Their heads turned to stare at us, and I felt sheepish at once. When we walked through the door, my acute senses picked up every little smell, sight, and sound. It was kind of overwhelming. Alice was chewing on her lip excitedly.

"Where to first Alice?" I asked, gesturing toward the huge mall in front of us.

"_Forever 21!_" Alice exclaimed and grabbed our hands and pulled us into the crowd of people………………………………………

_Forever 21_ was a _huge_ store. While we were shopping there, Alice informed me that they had "all the latest trends". Rosalie, Esme, and I let Alice and Renesmee dress us up like Barbie dolls. Esme got her fashion sense from Aunt Alice, but then again, she had her own style completely. In the end I ended up getting _five _new outfits! Ugh. And we weren't even finished yet……………………………

After the night was over, I think we went to over fifteen stores and spent over fifteen hundred dollars! Now, I have about seven cashmere sweaters all in different colors, three cocktail dresses, five pairs of jeans, four casual shirts that cost about seventy five dollars each, a fur coat, like eight pairs of shoes…..it's just too much!

When we arrived home, Edward was sitting on the front porch of our cottage waiting for me. I had Renesmee on my hip, snoring lightly. He kissed her and then me. He kissed up my neck and across my jaw line. I moved closer to him and it jostled Renesmee, who stretched her hands in the air. I lightly pushed Edward away and put a finger over is lips as he began to protest. "Hold on just a little bit longer." I murmured, moving past him and into the house. I carefully put Renesmee down in her bed, tucked her in, and kissed her goodnight. As soon as she was out of my arms, Edward scooped me up and padded down the hallway. He kissed me passionately and threw me down on our soft, down bed. I had a feeling that tonight was going to be a good night.


	8. Temptations

8. Temptations

As I lay on the floor with Edward, my head nestled into his smooth, marble chest, I was dreading going back to school for an entire week. Everything after the shopping trip last weekend was great. We mostly spent time with family and just hung out and relaxed at the Denali's place. A thunderstorm came through on Sunday and Renesmee and I got to play baseball for the first time ever. Apparently baseball was something all vampires knew how to play because the Denalis knew how to play too. This coming weekend, Kate and Garrett are getting married. The Denalis had plenty of money so it was sure to be lavish. Thinking of weddings, I got off the floor and padded down the hallway in my silk camisole and shorts to the bookshelf in the foyer. I scanned over the many books and albums on the shelves. Edward appeared behind me and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Our wedding album that Esme and Renee put together."

"Ahh…and may I ask why?"

"Because I just feel like looking at it." I replied, pulling the corny photo album off the shelf. On the inside, in Esme's neat handwriting, was written "Edward and Bella". I had always liked how our names fit together. When you said them it just sounded…right, I guess. I looked at the pictures of me as a human. My skin was a shade darker than it was now; my golden eyes a chocolate brown. I looked at the pictures of our first dance, Edward and I shoving cake in each other's faces, me walking down the aisle with Charlie on my arm, supporting my weight. Charlie.

Questions like, _where is he?_ and _how is he doing?_ shot through my mind. What if he was sick? What if he had a heart attack like Billy? He never ate healthy. I needed to go see Alice. She would be able to give me an update on him…or would she? I shoved the photo album back onto the shelf and walked back to the bedroom. I opened the huge silver door leading to my closet. My bags from Friday night were sitting on the shelf. I dove my hand into the bag with the sweaters and grabbed one. I quickly pulled it on over my head and opened the dresser in my closet to find my favorite pair of blue jeans. Edward then entered my closet.

"Is there something wrong, love?"

"No." I was trying to keep my cool.

"Really?" He took my head in his hands and kissed my eyelashes.

"I just need to go see Alice…" His beauty took my breath away.

"For what?"

"Oh, nothing…" I was determined not to let him know how anxious I was.

"You know I'll just find out later."

"I just need to ask Alice about Charlie…"

"Okay. And?"

"And…nothing, I guess." He then took my hand and led me out of the closet and into Renesmee's room.

I picked her sleeping body up, careful not to wake her, and walked down the hallway and out the door. It was getting cold in Juneau and Renesmee shivered in her sleep. I was instinctively holding her close to me, but I'm sure that wasn't helping. "Go get her a blanket." I told Edward. He nodded and strode back into the house. Three seconds later, he emerged, holding Renesmee's blanket. I carefully wrapped her up like a breakable package and sped off into the trees with Edward. As we got closer to the house, I slowed down. I entered the front room with Edward on my waist. Alice was already waiting for me in the kitchen. I opened my mouth to speak but she was quicker.

"Oh Bella! Charlie is fine! Don't be such a worry wart!"

"I just needed to know that he was safe, Alice."

"He's perfectly safe! He's going about his daily life as if nothing had changed!"

That hit me hard; but wasn't that what I was doing to him? I grimaced.

"He still misses you, but he's not about to stop his whole life just because you left him!" she corrected her mistake.

"Okay, Alice. Thanks."

"You're Welcome. Now come on, it's time for school!" she replied, grabbing my hand and dragging me out the door………………………………………………………………………………………..

As we drove into the now familiar school parking lot, I was tempted to jump out and run back to my cottage, but I knew that being a Cullen was like a role in a play. You had to act out your part well, or you couldn't be in the performance. If I missed too much school or anything like that, people would start to get suspicious. So here I was, another entire day of school ahead of me. Ugh.

Edward and I were walking down the hallway, when I noticed several students in the office at the end of the hallway. The girl turned her head to look out of the glass doors. It was the same girl I had seen Friday night in front of the house. She looked dreadfully unhappy. Before I could catch another glimpse of her, Edward grabbed my hand and pulled me around the next corner. I absentmindedly put my things into my book bag. This week our schedules were flipped backwards so mine went math, French, biology, lunch, PE, English, and history. The bell rang and we both hurried off to class………………

Again, math passed very slowly. Not as slowly as usual because it wasn't the end of the day, but still slow. Basically we both just sat there and passed notes back and forth since our math teacher, Mrs. Lloyd, had ears like a hawk. Edward and I were star math students so Mrs. Lloyd had almost no reason to complain if she did catch us talking after what seemed like hours, the bell rang, dismissing us from class…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After French, I headed straight to Biology, eager to get through my last class without Edward, even though he was in the class right next door. I entered the classroom and took my seat in the middle of the class, as always. I didn't really mind sitting in the middle that much since I couldn't get caught talking to Edward. As Mr. Keenly was about to shut the door, someone on the other side pushed it open again. It was the same girl in the office. She smiled apologetically and as she handed him a green slip said, "Sorry, I got lost."

"That's alright! Come in, come in! Miss…uhh…?"

" Miller…Grace Miller." She answered him shyly.

"Well Grace, why don't you take a seat by Bella." He said, gesturing toward the empty seat beside me. I nodded sheepishly.

The girl looked at me in amazement and stumbled to her seat.

I smiled at her encouragingly. As soon as she got close is when it hit me. Her scent was the sweetest scent I had ever smelled. I clenched the side of the table. Her blood was singing to me. Her blood was making me think of ways to get her alone after class and kill her. _Just be charming and lure her into a corner somewhere,_ I thought to myself._ Or you could just kill her now and get rid of all the witnesse,_ I thought grimly. I automatically snapped out of my menacing plans. I was horrified with myself. How could I think that?! She instinctively drew her arms tighter to her chest. My throat burned intensely and for a second, I thought I was going to lose it. _I have to get out of this classroom,_ I told myself. I stretched my shield away from my body. _Edward! I need to get out of this room!_ I screamed as loud as I could in my head, hoping he would hear me. I heard Edward's velvet voice in the room next door, "Ms. Lopez? May I go to the restroom?"

"Of course, Edward. But, you must ask in Spanish first!" Damn that teacher. _Hold on one more second, Bella. You can do It,_ I repeated over and over again in my head.

"_Puerdo ir al lavabado?"_ Edward repeated again in Spanish, his voice strained.

"Now you may go."

I heard his swift footsteps next door, then in the hallway, and then the door handle was turning. "Mr. Keenly, I need to see Bella." He said smoothly as he handed him a note.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he shot an apologetic look at both of us. "Bella you're dismissed."

I jumped out of my seat, and halfway ran out the door. I was almost out of the classroom when Mr. Keenly called out to me, "Don't forget! Your essay is due whenever you came back!"

I turned around and nodded stiffly, then walked out the door. Edward was trying his best to control his speed as he tugged me through the corridors. When we were finally outside and away from the prying eyes of the security cameras, he scooped me up in his arms and crooned, "Shh…it's okay Bella love…it's okay," as I sobbed tearlessly into his shirt. He nestled his head into my hair. I was still horrified with myself. There was a poor innocent girl that I probably scared to death! Not to mention the fact that I was thinking of ways to kill her! I was a monster.

"Take me away!" I sobbed.

"Of course, Bella. We can go wherever you want." He said as he smoothed back my hair.

"Oh, Edward! I was thinking of ways to kill her! Even the rest of the people in the classroom! I'm such a monster!" I sobbed again.

"You're not a monster, love! It's only natural! We'll go right now. Remember how I said we could to Antarctica and hunt penguins and polar bears? Well I'm already there."

"I don't think I need to go that far…" I sniffed in a small voice.

"Well then I know the perfect place." He answered, drawing me closer and taking off into the forest at full speed. I snuggled into his chest. Everything was okay for now. I was with Edward and I hadn't killed anyone. _Breathe, Bella._ I thought to myself, _Breathe in the nice, fresh, air…_…………………………………………………………………….


	9. Vacation

**Author's Note: **I know the last chapter was short…that's the way I wanted it to be :) Please R&R!!!!!!

9. Vacation

Edward had been running for at least three hours. I had my eyes closed. Right now, all I wanted to do was lay here in Edward's arms and enjoy the quiet calm of the forest. The cool air rushing past me slowed and I realized Edward had stopped. I reluctantly opened my eyes. We were in a small clearing. He set me down gently in the soft grass.

"Where are we?" I asked him as I examined my surroundings.

"This is where I came after I first met you." He answered, his eyes distant.

"Oh." Was all I could say.

He stretched out in the lush grass and put his hands behind his head. I lay down beside him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I suddenly remembered Mr. Keenly's look of pity when Edward had handed him the note.

"What did the note say? The one you gave Mr. Keenly…"

"Your grandmother died." He replied with an impish grin.

"Great…" I murmured.

He laughed in response. I looked up at the stars, each one a fiery ball of light. I reached my finger up as if I could touch one of them. Edward turned to stare into my eyes. The way he always looked at me! As if he could see our past, present, and future through my eyes! It had never made sense for him to love me. Even though I was considerably more beautiful now, I had still had self esteem issues as a vampire.

"What?" he asked anxiously as I turned my head away from his. His eyes had melted into mine and I had looked away sheepishly.

"It just doesn't make sense…"

"What doesn't?" his lips turned down at the corners.

"The way you look at me…it's as if you can see our past, present, and future in my eyes…"

"Bella," he moaned as he realized that I was edging towards the "I don't belong with you" topic, "You _are_ my past, present, and future! Why don't you see that?"

"I don't know…" I muttered.

He took my head in his hands and traced my features with his lips.

"You – Belong – With – Me." He said finally, kissing me one last time and then holding me to his chest. I sighed contently and let my lids slide shut. I don't know how long we lay there like that. All I know is that I was utterly and unreasonably happy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

When I reluctantly opened my eyes in the morning, the first thing I saw was Edward's face, his eyes staring probingly into mine. The sun was throwing playful shadows across the little clearing. Edward was sparkling, but I was positioned in the shade.

"Good morning." My dry throat rasped. I was incredibly thirsty.

"Good morning." He replied, his velvet voice as smooth always despite the dark tint to his eyes.

"Can we hunt?" I asked sheepishly.

"Of course love." He sprang lightly to his feet and helped me up. My body was stiff. I had lain in the same position all night.

Hunting was not something I liked. I always felt so wild and out of control. Like I might accidentally turn on Edward if I wasn't careful. Not to mention the feeling _after_ I hunted. Sure, it dulled the burning in my throat, but I always felt so full and slushy afterward. All in all, hunting was not exactly fun.

"What's on the menu today?" I asked wryly.

"Hmm, let's see…" he stretched his hearing range outward and closed his eyes. His nostrils flared open slightly, "Well there's elk, deer, and mountain lion _nearby_. But if you prefer more of a variety, we can go some place else…"

"No, here is good. I think I'll go with elk. Not too easy, not too hard." I grinned at my nonchalance.

"Your wish, my command." He replied, taking my hand and kissing it.

I relaxed my muscles, readying myself for the hunt. Edward sped off into the forest and I followed suit. Once I got closer, I could hear the elk lapping up water from the creek. Soon, we were close enough to see them. I could hear the blood pulsing through their veins under their soft fur. My body tensed as I sprang lightly at the animal, landing gracefully atop its back. My razor sharp teeth easily made a small incision in its broad neck. The struggles of the elk slowly died down as I drained its blood. When I was finished, I looked over my shoulder at Edward, who had just finished off his own meal. Since we had both taken down the two largest males, we decided that we had enough and that we would go hunting with the family next week.

"Should we go back?" Edward mused

"I think we have to." I sighed reluctantly.

"Alright then." He agreed and cradled me in his marble arms as he took off into the forest…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

When we arrived back at the house, Alice, Carlisle, Renesmee, and Jacob were standing outside waiting for me. As soon as Edward set me down, Alice embraced me and exclaimed, "Oh, Bella! I was so worried!"

Renesmee squealed, "Mommy!" and leaped into my arms. I buried my head in her soft bronze hair.

Carlisle said, "I'm very proud of you, Bella," hugged me tightly, and then glided back into the house.

Jacob scooped me up into a gigantic bear hug, shivered a little, and then whispered, "I'm glad you're home, Bells. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I answered, "just a little shaken up that's all."

He nodded in response then silently walked back into the forest toward the cottage.

For the rest of that week, I stayed with my family. When Friday came around, vampires started flooding into to the Denali's house – ready for the wedding on Saturday. Some of them I recognized from our gathering last year, while some of them were completely new and unknown. I was not in the mood to socialize, but I conversed and smiled with them anyway – quite convincingly if you ask me. The wedding was even fancier than I had expected, ands afterward; Kate and Garrett flew off to Isle Esme. I then escaped from the crowds of vampires and holed myself up in my cottage for the remainder of the weekend with Edward and Renesmee………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….


	10. A Series of Events

**AN:**

** Oooookkkkk!!! So I finally figured out that I could see how many people have actually read my story and there were 409 hits and 174 visitors!!! And guess how many reviews I have??? 18!!!!!! All I have to say is, please please please review it if u read it!!! I want constructive criticism!!! Reviews are food. Do you want me to starve?! :D**

8. A Series of Events

Monday. Today I had to go back to school. Today, I would have to face Grace Miller – the girl who was about to make my life extremely difficult. I had taken all of the necessary precautions, now the rest was up to me. Forty-five minutes. It didn't seem that long a time; but who knows, especially when you're trying not to kill someone. I sat in bed, staring out of the window blankly. We would be on regular schedule today so I wouldn't have to face her until sixth period. This was a good thing. This way, I would have time to "mentally prepare" myself. Not that any amount of it would make it that much easier, but maybe being around other humans for a few hours might help.

I slowly got up out of bed and strode over to my vanity. My eyes were a bright gold. My hair was tangled and messy. I quickly grabbed the brush and raked through it. After most of the bad knots were detangled, I went to my closet. On any other day, I would have just grabbed anything and threw it on without thinking twice. But today, I actually wanted to look nice. Nothing too showy and nothing too fancy. I wanted to look nice and plain today. In the end, I threw on a **long sleeved white shirt and put an olive green bubble vest over it. _This as good as it's gonna get, _I thought to myself. I hadn't even noticed Edward eyeing me until then.

"What?" I asked self-consciously.

"I'm just so proud of you."

"Umm…..why?!"

"For facing this. For being so brave." He replied. One second he was standing in the closet doorway and the next he was glued to my body. He kissed me and then glanced at the clock. 7:15. We would have to be there at 7:40. Even with Jasper speeding through town, it took us about twenty minutes to get to school. "We need to get going I guess." He said and pulled me out of the room. He almost walked right past Renesmee's room. I pried his fingers off of my waist and slipped into her room. She was still snoring. I picked her up gently and cradled her in my arms. I nestled my head into her hair and inhaled her sweet scent deeply. I had never told anyone this, but whenever I was tempted by the scent of a human's blood, I just thought about Renesmee. I thought about being a role model and a good example to her. She and Edward were my motivation in life. My only reason to live. And that's why I was "being brave and facing this" today. I couldn't let them down.

As we ran through the woods to the main house, Edward suddenly drew in a sharp breath and stopped in his tracks.

"What is it…?" I asked cautiously.

"Listen." He replied quietly, his face furrowed in concentration.

I did as he said and after about a second I heard them. Screaming. At the house? Why? I gently gave Renesmee to Edward and raced ahead into the forest. I tried to remain calm as I sprinted from the edge of the forest to the scene in the driveway. I couldn't believe my eyes. An enormous gray wolf was tearing away at a vampire I had never seen before. Jacob was standing there convulsing. His entire frame was shaking with anger. Then, his shape blurred and he became the huge russet wolf. He jumped into the fight to defend the gray wolf (who I assumed was Leah).

"What's going on? What happened?" I screamed at Carlisle as Kate jumped into the blur of colors.

Kate slammed Jacob's massive body into the ground. I heard a cracking sound and then Jacob howled in pain. I let out an ear-piercing scream. What was he doing?! Was he _trying _to get himself killed?! The unknown vampire ripped a huge chunk out of Jacob's shoulder while Kate danced around menacingly with Leah. Jacob yelped in pain but continued to struggle.

"JAKE STOP!!!! Please!!!" I yelled at him desperately as Garrett appeared in the threshold of the house. Seeing Kate fighting, of course Garrett jumped in too. Garrett's hand smacked into Jacob with a powerful blow and his body went limp. I screamed while everyone else just stood there, not wanting to attempt to break up the fight for two reasons. 1. They wouldn't have enough self-control to keep from hurting Jake and Leah. 2. Nobody wanted to let his or her partners get hurt. I stood on the sidelines of the fight helplessly, desperately screaming at the top if my lungs for them to stop. My screams made no impact. There was blood splattered everywhere. Jacob's blood. Leah's blood.

Finally, Leah managed to pull away from the scene and limp off into the forest. Kate was just about to follow her when Jacob ambushed her from behind. As soon as Jacob touched Kate, he was down. She had used her "gift" and I could tell she hadn't held back one bit. Even though Jacob looked halfway dead, he still found the strength to give one last lunge at Garrett. Garrett jumped up in the air quickly - landing on Jacob's back in the process – and ripped one last chunk out of him. I sobbed hysterically. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the still unknown vampire racing off into the forest. Garrett, seeing that Kate had ran away after the vampire, straightened up and ran off to find her.

I knelt down at Jake's side. He looked damaged beyond repair. Mutilated. I whispered frantically in his ear. "Jake!!! Jake?! Jake are you all right??? Please answer me Jake…" His eyelids twitched. I knelt down and pressed my ear to his chest. His heart was just barely beating. It was giving off soft, slow little _galumphs_ every now and then. I was still in hysterics. "Will he be okay?" I whispered in a small voice to Carlisle, who had just come over to examine Jacob.

"I…..I…..Bella you do know that I will try my best. That's all I can do." He replied, avoiding my question in a way.

I nodded solemnly as he poked and prodded Jake's lifeless body.

"And you do know what vampire venom does…..to a werewolf.….?"

I sobbed again. I did know. Vampire venom shuts down everything in your body. _Everything._ For humans, the venom enables you to live without the things that that it shuts down. But for werewolves, it just shuts everything down. You slowly die. Jacob couldn't heal himself if there was _any_ venom in his system whatsoever. He wouldn't even be able to heal any broken bones that he had. Jacob had _several_ small chunks of his flesh missing where he had been bitten. What did that mean for him? I looked into his eyes…those big black eyes that belonged both to the enormous russet wolf and to the sixteen year old I fell in love with years ago.

Suddenly, I heard small footsteps approaching. I turned away from his face and saw Renesmee walking towards the scene warily, Edward trailing behind her. She screamed aloud at the sight of Jacob. I automatically got up and ran to comfort her.

"Shhh sweetie. He'll be fine. It's gonna be okay." I tried my best to sound convincing, even though I knew the truth.

"What happened to him?!" she cried with a sniff.

"He just got in a little fight. That's all." I lied again. I wished that was all that happened.

"Will he be okay?"

"Of course he will, sweetheart. Now this doesn't change anything. We all still have to go to school today, alright?" she sniffed and nodded her head as I handed her off to Esme. I looked back one last time at Jacob's torn up, unmoving body and slid into the back seat of the car with Edward………………………………………..

As Jasper hurried through town, I stared out the window blankly. Just the image of Jake…..lying there in the woods…..I could barely stand to think about it. We were already late for school, so Jasper was going double fast. We had to wait to see Jake _after_ school. Carlisle was going to pull all of his resources together and try to save Jake as best as he could. His plan was to try and make an anti-venom, Edward had told me. But even if it worked, we had no clue how long it would take him to recover or what the long-term side effects would be. I shuddered and Edward put his arm around me. I let my head slump against his shoulder and he buried his face in my hair. And we sat like that for the rest of the ride…………………………………………………………………………………..

Edward and I walked through the empty halls. Everyone else was already in class. I subconsciously opened my locker. Everyone was in second period now. I shut my locker and turned towards the stairwell to go to English, but Edward grabbed my elbow and tugged me toward the office instead.

"What are we doing?" I asked dully.

"Getting tardy slips." He replied.

"Oh."

We entered the office, told the receptionist that we had a "personal problem", and then we signed the tardy roll and headed to English. English passed slowly, as did the other classes. I numbly toyed with my spaghetti at lunch, anxious about biology. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a boy approaching me. I reluctantly straightened up out of my slouched position. He looked really nervous about whatever he was about to do. He addressed me at first.

"You're Bella…..right?" He chewed his bottom lip nervously.

I nodded in response.

"Do you umm…..know where…Jake is…..?"

"He had an…..accident." I replied, my voice cracking on the last word. Everyone at the table eyed me nervously, like I might have a breakdown any minute.

"Oh." Was all he replied. He turned on his heel and walked away swiftly.

I got up to throw my plate away. As I turned to head back to the table, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into a deserted corridor. It was Edward. He began to pull me towards the exit door. When I realized what he was thinking, I tugged my arm away.

"I'm not leaving." I stated stubbornly in a dull voice.

"You don't want to be here Bella, I know it," he said sadly.

"You got that right…" I muttered, wanting to give in, "but I have to be. I need to do this Edward." I walked back into the cafeteria just as the bell rang.

Edward walked me to biology, constantly reminding me over and over again that no one was making me do this and that he would be right next door. I subconsciously kissed him goodbye and entered the classroom. Grace wasn't there yet. As I was about to sit down at my table, Mr. Keenly called my name. I turned to look at him, surprised by his gesture.

"Bella!" he called, "how are you?"

"Err fine…..?" I replied awkwardly.

"I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother." He said.

"Huh? Ohhh her! Yeah me too….." I replied, my brain processing slowly.

He stared at me then, surprised by my nonchalant comment on the death of my grandmother.

Grace entered the classroom then. I took one last huge gulp of untainted air and the scooted my chair all the way over to the far side of the table. The terror in her eyes was plain to see. Should I talk to her? I tried to think back to how I felt when Edward showed up again. Terrified, sick, nervous……ok this wasn't helping. Maybe I should just save the talk for later in the week. Mr. Keenly babbled on and on about some course I had already covered twice before. That meant I didn't have anything to keep me distracted from Grace and her sweet, sweet smell…………..! Ok. This was definitely not a good thing. I turned my attention back to Mr. Keenly, taking careful notes on his lecture. I risked a few peeks in Grace's direction once or twice. She still looked like she was about to vomit. The rest of the class period passed surprisingly quickly. When the bell rang, I gathered my things, happy that something had gone well today.

Edward and I walked to math. He was practically glowing with admiration. I felt the need to blush. Math passed quickly and by the time I knew it, I was seated in the back of the Volvo, heading home to see Jake. I chewed my lip nervously and drummed my fingers on the seat. Noticing my edginess, Edward scooped my hand up in his and kissed it. "Relax. Breathe. It's okay," he told me. I sighed in defeat and leaned against his shoulder, still anxious to see Jacob……………………………

When we arrived at the house, I halfway ran out of the car. It took all of my strength not to run headlong into the house. I began walking toward the Denali's house, thinking surely that was where Jacob would be. Suddenly, Kate was standing in the doorway with a glare fixed upon her face. She threw a pointed look – or more like a glare – toward the woods. I turned on my heal and raced away, leaving my book bag lying in the gravel driveway. When I turned the knob to my cottage door, it was unlocked. Carlisle was sitting in the recliner by the fire with a book in his hands.

"Where is he?" I asked worriedly.

"In his bedroom." Carlisle replied.

I nodded and ducked away into the hallway.

When I entered Jacob's room, I didn't even recognize it at first. There was an elaborate hospital setup in there. So many tubes and wires were connected to Jake that I barely recognized _him_. Not to mention the fact that he was still mutilated. I ran to the side of the bed with the least amount of hospital equipment on it and knelt by Jake's side. I stroked his sleeping face. I hoped that he wasn't in pain. He didn't look like he was in pain, but………? He looked ten times worse he had in his wolf form. Earlier I had at least been able see a few places where he wasn't banged up. But now that their was less mass to him, almost every inch of him was covered with bandages or a plaster cast. A quite sob escaped my lips as I laid my head on the side of his bed. I barely even noticed when Carlisle entered the room.

"So what's the prognosis, doc?" I asked dryly, smiling without humor.

"Well I'm not really sure where to start." He replied. "I spent all day attempting to create an anti-venom and have finally figured out a formula. I'm planning to begin giving it to him soon. I just don't want to _regret_ giving it to him. It could have horrible side effects. I've been trying to give him morphine or an anesthetic, but his system simply refuses to take it. Every time I tried, he vomited it back up ten minutes later."

"He's not on morphine?!" I exclaimed in horror. "You mean he can feel everything?!"

Carlisle hung his head and nodded.

"I…he…that's…that's just…_inhumane_!" I stuttered.

"Bella, there's nothing else I can do right now. Plus, he's asleep so he doesn't feel anything at the moment."

"I know. I'm sorry. When will he be waking up?" I tried to remain calm.

"In the next few hours most likely."

"Good. I think I'm gonna stay with him for now if you don't mind."

"Ok, Bella. I'll be in the living room if you need me."

I nodded in response. And there I stayed, kneeling down at Jake's side, for the remainder of the night…………………………………………………………………


	11. Short Author's Note! Please Read!

~Ok this is NOT an update just a long author's note. Unfortunately, I have been suffering from terrible writers block lately :|!!!! I have literally been sitting in front of the computer trying to write but nothing comes up!!! Grrrr!!! So last night I had a moment (or an hour or two) of inspiration!!! I meant to put an author's note up at the end of the last chapter but it was 9:30 on a school night and I still had loads of homework!!!! I just had to get it up THAT NIGHT so I did without an author's note!!!! First of all, there are two asterisk marks in front of a phrase in chapter 10; the outfit that is described after those marks is dedicated to theheartlandgirl24!!!! Luv ya!!!! Also, I am itching to write another story because I have a few brilliant ideas!!! But, I already have _this_ to write and I am planning on making a short story out of my one-shot, _Nightmare._ What should I do?!?!?!? No matter what I will definitely continue writing this story, but if I add another story, my updates will be slower…….? I am soooo confussed!!!!! Ooookkk so I am kinda rambling so I'm just gonna stop now hahaha!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read and review!!!!! I will be more motivated to update if I have more reviews!!!! :D~


	12. Author's Note! Opinions Needed!

**Author's Note:** Okay sorry I'm doing another author's note but I really want your opinions. Below I wrote a summary of one of the stories that I want to write. I am just really confused on whether I should start writing this or not. I am itching to write another story but I just don't know if I have time!!! Please read this and then let me know what you think!!!! I would really appreciate it!!! Thanks a lot!!!

Idea: Bella's mom died in a tragic car accident when she was five years old. Unfortunately, she was forced to live with her dad; a drunk with anger issues in the town of Forks. As the years pass, Bella is hit and beaten by her father and nobody knows. Her body is covered with bruises and scars. After every beating she got from the time she was five, her dad always told her, "You know I love you, right? And just know this…..you don't deserve any better. You can't trust anyone in this world to love you." And she would nod silently and he would kiss her and walk out of the room. Now sixteen years old and a junior in high school, Bella has few friends and has never had a boyfriend. There are two reasons for this; 1. Because she is under the impression that it's her fault she beaten; and 2. Charlie won't allow it. One day, she meets Edward Cullen. He shows an interest in her, and she secretly has feelings for him. But, her father's words replay over and over again inside her head. Can she trust this stranger? Will she let her guard down? Will Bella ever be able to be happy again? And what if Charlie finds out? What then? Will Edward still like her if he figures out her secret? Or will she be rejected yet again?


	13. Pain

**Author's Note: **Oookkk so did y'all think the last chapter was okay?!?! I wrote most of it in one night so it might not have been very good!!! And one more thing; I will be doing a Jacob's point of view in this chapter and it will be further back in time. Like around when he first started in the fight. Then I will switch back to Bella in the **next chapter** and it will already be close to Biology class!!! Oh and this will be a long chapter because I want to get every detail!!!!! PLEASE R&R!!! :D

Jacob hadn't gotten any better. At around 6:00 pm, he woke up. I knew he must have been hurting. Soon, Carlisle figured out that the venom rejected any _liquid_ pain medication, but not solid pills. A few hours after Jake had woken up, Carlisle administered the anti-venom. The anti-venom would burn, Carlisle had told me, so he gave Jake the strongest pain pill he could. It wasn't strong enough as far as I could tell. Jacob would shudder as the venom and the anti-venom coursed through his veins. To keep from screaming, he bit his lip until it bled. Even in his sleep, he would convulse violently as the venom slowly started to attempt to shut things down – and it was succeeding. All I could do was sit there, holding his hand while Carlisle injected more and more anti-venom.

It seemed as if his beautiful, copper skin had turned permanently pale and sallow by the time morning came. As if his childlike face would be furrowed in pain forever. As Carlisle leaned over him, poking, sticking, bandaging, and wrapping up every part of Jacob, a thought occurred to me. How had the fight begun anyway? Where was Leah now and why was she here in the first place?

"Carlisle?" I asked in a small voice.

"Hmmm…..?" he replied without looking away from Jake's body.

"Would you mind telling me…how the fight started in the first place?"

"Leah came to visit Jacob. I'm not entirely sure what happened. Leah must have come in contact with Kate's friend and been caught off guard. I can imagine she wasn't too happy to see the color of their eyes either. The two of them started going at each other. Just as you arrived, Kate had come out of the house and joined the fight to defend her friend. And well…you saw the rest…"

I nodded solemnly. Jacob winced in his sleep as Carlisle rubbed a syrup-like liquid across the long, deep gashes on his leg. My mind was wandering aimlessly when Edward entered the room. He shot a glance of pity at Jacob and then addressed me.

"Err...Bella...?"

"Hmm…?"

"Its almost time for school to start…".

"Alright." I sighed and heaved myself off of the floor. I squeezed Jake's hand gently and cast him one last look as I left the room. I just wanted to get school over with so I could come home and sit by soft, mortal, _human_ best friend.

**JACOB'S POINT OF VIEW:**

"_Damn, _Leah!" I muttered to myself as I saw her and the vampire tearing each other apart. She was being beat…bad. I couldn't let her die this way. Reluctantly, I phased. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella run from the edge of the woods. She would definitely be pissed, but a friend has to do what a friend has to do. I jumped into the fight, ready to kick some vampire ass if I needed to. I leaped on top of the vampire that was attacking Leah, pinning them to the ground momentarily. I was only planning on giving Leah time to escape, and then I would back out of the fight. I didn't want to hurt any of Bella or Carlisle's friends. But when the vamp bit me. This was going to turn into a full-blown fight. My newly acquired wound throbbed around the edges, but I pushed it into the back of my mind. The vampire noticed Leah trying to get away and moved back to occupy her attention.

I struggled back to my feet and just as I stood up, the psychopath blonde with shock fingers backhanded me and sent my body crashing down. I heard one of my bones break and felt my body go limp. She would kill me if I didn't fight back. I could hear Bella screaming behind me, but paid her no attention. It was _on_ now! Before I could get up, sparky's unknown friend tore a huge chunk out of my shoulder. I howled out in pain as the venom seeped into my body. Suddenly, there was another vampire involved! It was a male this time. He kicked my side so hard that I flew into the nearest tree. He tore another hunk of flesh off of my body while I was down. This was not good. I could feel my strength waning. Again, Leah attempted to escape, but the blonde was already on her tail. With every ounce of strength that I had left, I leaped on top of her. The shock that went through my body was debilitating. My body crashed to the ground yet again. The male had his back turned to me so I lunged at him. _Hell,_ I figured, _if I'm gonna die then I'm taking them with me!_ Unfortunately, he heard me coming and was on top of me within seconds. Too weak to fight back, I lay there and took it as he bit me yet again. He hit me and kicked me repeatedly until I – or so he assumed – was dead. But I wasn't. When he was finished with me, he sped off into the forest; leaving me lying there in a pool of my own blood.

I couldn't move a muscle. Every part of me was on fire. I struggled for breath. I felt Bella put her cold, hard hand on me. I barely heard her whispering. Her voice sounded far away. Was this what it felt like to die? I hoped not. This was too painful to be death. Death was supposed to be peaceful. I made my eyelid twitch to show her that I was still alive. This was the best I could manage to do. The burning was becoming more and more intense now. I felt like there was a boulder sitting on my chest, compressing my lungs. Cold fingers gently probed all over my body. I heard the purr of a Volvo in the background and then the squeal of rubber on asphalt. Everyone had left for school. Would they just leave me here and let me die? Something about the way Carlisle was touching me told me the answer. They would put me on tons of drugs and try to save me; but I wished they wouldn't. I would be a living pincushion. The pain was becoming unbearable now. Carlisle's voice broke through the surface of my thoughts.

"Jacob?" he said calmly.

I yelped as a response.

"Jacob I need you to phase back. Can you do that for me?"

I yelped again. Despite the pain, phasing was easy. Soon, I was being cradled in his stone cold arms as he ran. I felt the warm air on my skin when we entered the house. Carlisle laid me down on my bed gently. Every spot on my body was aching and/or burning. "Jacob, I'm going to give you some pain meds, alright?" I feebly nodded my head in response. The IV was nothing compared to the other pain. I gasped for hair. My heart was beating slowly. I felt like I was being burned at the stake. I could feel the venom raging through my body, destroying everything in its path. Why wasn't the medicine working? All of the sudden, I began puking. Then, I blacked out. The last thing I remembered from that morning was simple - I wished he would just let me die………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

When I woke up, I almost didn't remember where I was. But then the pain hit me. I felt my eyes fly open. I gasped for air again. This time, I felt two pairs of cold hands touching me. One was poking and prodding, and the other was soothing. Rubbing my hand. Bella. I tried to move my body, but it refused. I tried to turn my head to look at her, but the pain was too much.

"Jake…?" I heard Bella whisper.

"Bella." I managed to choke out, my eyes still staring straight up at the ceiling.

"Oh, Jake!" she sobbed, laying her head down on my stomach. I flinched. "Sorry! Sorry!" she said guiltily.

"It's _okay_, Bells."

She sniffed.

"How do I look?" I asked with sarcasm, still unable to turn my head toward her. The sarcasm was supposed to lighten the mood, but I ruined it when my voice cracked in pain at the end.

"Like you got caught in the propeller of the Titanic." She replied, a halfhearted smile appearing on her face.

"Fabulous…" I murmured. "Where's the doc?"

"Right here!" Carlisle replied, strolling into the room. He snapped on a rubber glove with an ominous sound.

I tried to sit up just a little, but I was attached to too many wires and tubes and pieces of equipment. I winced.

"Take it easy, Jacob. I'm going to conduct a few simple tests now that you're awake, alright?"

I nodded my head as best I could.

"Now," he began, "on a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in?"

I glanced at Bella. I was about to say eight and a half – for her sake – until Carlisle's fingers began probing along the side of my rib cage. I gasped out loud, startling Bella.

"It doesn't…hurt…that….bad…!" I tried to tell her as I struggled for breath. She didn't look convinced.

"I'm guessing it's about a ten then…?" he asked as he wrote things down on his clipboard.

I didn't respond. I wasn't going to show my weakness.

"Okay…" he said, moving on. "Can you tell me _where_ it hurts the most?"

"Everywhere." I replied simply, not even attempting bravado.

"_Specifically_…?" he hedged.

"My ribs hurt like hell…"

"Mmmm hmmm." He murmured. "Anywhere else?"

"Honestly doc, it _all_ hurts like hell."

"Ok then…" he replied, his face furrowed in frustration.

"Now would you mind telling me exactly what's wrong with me?"

"Err…sure." He said uncertainly. "Well I'm sure you've already figured out the fact that you have several broken ribs…?" I nodded. "And you were bitten several times. You have some severe abrasions in various places, and…poisoning."

"Poisoning?"

"The vampire venom."

"Wait…shouldn't I be dead if there's venom in my system?"

"Well it usually takes about two and a half days, but–"

"So I only have about one and a half days to live?" I cut him off, my voice cracking at the end.

"Jake, just listen!" Bella interjected. I looked at her and then back to Carlisle, who was giving Bella a look.

"What is it?" I asked looking back and forth.

"Listen Jacob. I've created an…anti-venom that might be able to contradict the vampire venom in your system. But, –"

I cut him off again. "Then what the hell are we waiting around for?!" I exclaimed. Bella gave me a look and I closed my mouth.

"It would be very painful for you. And there could be extremely severe side effects."

I gulped at the prospect of more pain. "Let's do it." I replied hoarsely, not sounding as confident now.

He nodded and zoomed out of the room. When he came back, he had a small vile of clear liquid with him.

"Jake…" Bella complained.

"Look, Bells. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I gave her a grimace as I attempted bravado. Carlisle was drawing the liquid from the vile and into a syringe now.

"You'll always be my best man, Jake." She said.

I snorted at her sappy words as the doctor injected the liquid into my IV. I gave her a halfhearted smile and then closed my eyes, ready to battle anything just to see her face again. My heart would not stop beating. I would get through this. For Bella, for the pack…..for Renesmee.

**Author's Note:** Whew that was a lot of dialogue!!!!!! And I am soooo sorry that it took me so long to update!!!!! Like I said, writers block!!!! And again, the next chapter will be Bella in biology class!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!! XD


	14. Author's Note Again! Need Opinions!

Ahhhhh sorry for ANOTHER author's note and all but I swear this will be one of the last ones!!!!!!!!!!! :/ Ok so I've been having a dilemma…….I have sooooo many story ideas and not enough time to write them!!!!!! So I decided that I am going to put one of my ideas into this story!!!!!! Everything that's already happened will stay the same, but the part where some unexpected visitors come is OUT!!!!! The new plotline will be that the entire world suddenly finds out about vampires and invents a weapon that can destroy them!!!!! The Cullens and everyone they love are under suspicion!!!!! Still working on the details but I promiseee it will be better!!!!!! Again, I am sooo sorry that I keep on asking for opinions and all!!!!!! Letme know what you think please!!!!!!! Thanx!!!!


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